<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!-- generator="WordPress/2.9.2" -->
<rss version="0.92">
<channel>
	<title>DevInContext</title>
	<link>http://www.devincontext.com</link>
	<description>The Case For Personal Growth</description>
	<lastBuildDate>Mon, 09 Aug 2010 04:09:40 +0000</lastBuildDate>
	<docs>http://backend.userland.com/rss092</docs>
	<language>en</language>
	
	<item>
		<title>Authenticity Answers, Part 1: How Deep Is Your Want?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
A little while ago, I promised Duff a post about a question he asked me on Twitter.  As I understand it, his question was:  if being authentic is about staying true to what you want (which I briefly suggested at my other blog), what happens if what you want is to get other people to [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/08/authenticity-answers-part-1-how-deep-is-your-want/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Guest Post At Mindful Construct: &#8220;3 Things The Personal Development Critics Got Wrong&#8221;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[I've published a guest post at Melissa Karnaze's blog Mindful Construct called "3 Things The Personal Development Critics Got Wrong."  It mainly deals with critics' arguments against personal development's ethic of taking responsibility for your circumstances, including the claims that this ethic encourages selfishness and self-blame.
I think this article will be a useful summary for [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/07/guest-post-at-mindful-construct-3-things-the-personal-development-critics-got-wrong/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Do Thoughts Create Things?, Part 1: Yes, Unless You&#8217;re A Robot</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
It will probably be obvious, to anyone who follows debates about personal development, that a central question in these debates is whether our inner experience can affect reality.  In other words, can changes in our thoughts and feelings cause changes in the world around us?
It's tempting to respond the way some critics do, and treat [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/07/do-thoughts-create-things-part-1-yes-unless-youre-a-robot/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>What Is Personal Development?, Part 3: Progressive and Lasting Change</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Last time, we talked about the first part of my working definition of personal development -- namely, that, to amount to personal growth, an idea or technique must be consciously intended to work with our "inner experience," meaning our thoughts, emotions and sensations.
I'll now talk about the second criterion an approach must meet, under my [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/07/what-is-personal-development-part-3-progressive-and-lasting-change/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>What Is Personal Development?, Part 2: Growth Vs. Advice</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
In my last post, I offered a working definition of personal development that goes like this:  "Personal development" perspectives and techniques are (1) consciously intended to work with our "inner experience," meaning our thoughts, emotions and sensations, and (2) meant to produce a lasting result.
As Duff pointed out in response to my last post, I've [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/07/what-is-personal-development-part-2-growth-vs-advice/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>What Is Personal Development?, Part 1: It&#8217;s All In The Intention</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
It just occurred to me that, in the "About" page of this blog, I promised you a working definition of personal development.  It feels a bit odd for me to keep talking about personal development without giving you that definition.
So, here goes:  "Personal development" perspectives and techniques are (1) consciously intended to work with our [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/07/what-is-personal-development-part-1-its-all-in-the-intention/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Personal Growth&#8217;s &#8220;Victim Culture,&#8221; Part 2: Support Groups and Selfishness</title>
		<description><![CDATA[ 
In this series, I've been responding to the common criticism that personal development encourages people to see themselves as victims, and discourages them from taking responsibility for their problems.
Recovery groups -- for example, Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) -- are a frequent target of anti-personal growth authors.  The critics have many concerns about these groups, as we'll [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/06/personal-growths-victim-culture-part-2-support-groups-and-selfishness/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Personal Growth&#8217;s &#8220;Victim Culture,&#8221; Part 1: The Threat of Therapy?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
In our earlier discussion of the "responsibility ethic," we talked about critics' common claim that personal development promotes an unrealistic sense of personal responsibility.
In this series, I'm going to respond to critics who take the opposite view -- that much self-help writing actually teaches people not to take responsibility for their lives.  A frequent criticism [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/06/personal-growths-victim-culture-part-1-the-threat-of-therapy/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Growth As An Opiate, Part 4: &#8220;Money Doesn&#8217;t Buy Happiness&#8221; Cuts Both Ways</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
Earlier I explored the argument, sometimes made by critics of personal growth, that practices for cultivating peace and happiness, like meditation and affirmations, are socially harmful.  By encouraging people to "look within" for happiness, rather than basing their satisfaction on material rewards, personal growth makes people less interested in righting the economic unfairness of our [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/06/growth-as-an-opiate-part-4-money-doesnt-buy-happiness-cuts-both-ways/</link>
			</item>
	<item>
		<title>Thoughts On &#8220;Thinking For Yourself&#8221;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[
 
Critics of personal development often assert that, rather than reading self-help books, we should "think for ourselves."  In fact, many critics even fear that personal growth products are actually stripping people of their ability to think independently.
"The self-help tradition has always been covertly authoritarian and conformist," writes Wendy Kaminer in I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional.  "Merely buying [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://www.devincontext.com/2010/05/thoughts-on-thinking-for-yourself/</link>
			</item>
</channel>
</rss>
